1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to audio samples and, more specifically, to a system and method for reducing the access time for devices such as a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to retrieve an audio sample from system memory by using a wave table cache.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wave tables are used by Digital Signal Processors (DSP) for use in audio applications to create sounds based upon audio samples stored in the system. Storing the audio samples to be used by the DSP may be done in the operating system memory or in a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM).
The problem with current systems that use the above approach is that system latency to fetch the audio samples from the operating system memory or from a PROM can cause delays in creating the audio sounds and with processing the samples in a timely manner. Furthermore, some computer systems have bandwidth problems across the memory, Input/Output (I/O), or Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) busses which can affect the overall performance of the system.
Therefore, a need existed to provide a system and method for retrieving and processing the audio samples in a timely manner without causing delays in the system. The system and method must also reduce bandwidth problems across the memory, I/O, and PCI busses thereby increasing the overall performance of the system.